HP knocks Dell off the top spot as biggest PC maker

HP has snatched Dell’s title as the biggest manufacturer of computers in the world after a solid third quarter that saw the vendor’s PC shipments increase 15% year-on-year, according to market research firm IDC.

It is the first time since 2003 that HP has held the top spot over its rival, whose reliance on the slowing US market — representing around 50% of its shipments — continued to hurt the vendor as volume declined nearly 7% from the same period last year, dragging down its growth worldwide to just 3.6%

In contrast, HP was able to leverage strong growth internationally and shield itself from the US market’s poor performance — growing almost 7%.

The vendor shipped 9.8 million units worldwide during the quarter, around 28,000 more than Dell.

The US slowdown also impacted on the worldwide PC market’s overall growth.

International volume continued to expand at roughly 11% year-on-year, but a slump of almost 1% in the US — the first decline in PC shipments since 2002 — brought overall shipment growth down to around 8%.

“This quarter’s results show a similar volatility to last quarter, with strong international sales and growth in portables reflecting continued demand while we saw weak results for Dell and the US market overall,” commented Loren Loverde, director of IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker.

Bob O’Donnell, vice president of Clients and Displays at IDC, added: “The impact of Dell’s decline was particularly acute in the US and led to a shrinking of the market versus the same period last year.”

After a slower second quarter impacted by channel inventory clearances, shipments in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) beat expectations in Q306 with a rise in volume of 10% year-on-year.

Acer and Toshiba — both of which have a strong presence in EMEA — continued to significantly outperform the market.

Acer experienced growth of 34.3%, shipping 3.4 million units, while Toshiba, one place below, increased volume by 20.4% to 2.3 million units.

Lenovo, the world’s third largest PC vendor, grew slightly faster than the market thanks to its strong presence in China.